Southaven sets road funding priorities

Southaven aldermen Friday approved the list of road improvement projects the city hopes to fund with federal dollars through the Metropolitan Planning Organization, including a trail and traffic roundabouts in Snowden Grove Park.

The board, during a special meeting, OK'd unanimously the five projects. Among them are two on the current MPO funding plans that will carry over to the new 2017-2020 schedule being compiled, along with three new projects.

The MPO is a regional organization that allocates federal funding to Memphis area municipalities for projects each city has identified. Projects aren't necessarily funded when placed on the priority list, but the long-range planning gets cities in line, so to speak, to receive federal dollars when available, provided the city can fund its local share.

"We have our projects spread out enough that it shouldn't be a problem," Mayor Darren Musselwhite said of having local funds available when Southaven's projects come up for MPO funds.

He added the city should budget its share of projects in the year city leaders hope to build them.

"It would be senseless to put it on there (the MPO list) if you don't budget accordingly," he said before aldermen voted on the list.

The five Southaven projects, outlined by Planning Director Whitney Choat-Cook, include two currently on the list that will carry over if not completed under the current schedule: Widening Getwell Road from two to four lanes from Church Road to Starlanding Road, and extending Nail Road between Elmore and Swinnea roads.

The three new projects:

Construction of a multiuse trail in Snowden Grove from Nail Road into the park system, running to the park office.

"As proposed, the trail would be 10 feet wide, and the plan would also include two roundabouts," Choat-Cook said.

She said one roundabout would fix an access point into the park's ball fields, and the other would be "basically for aesthetics."

Roundabouts are circular intersections that have become a popular traffic control feature in U.S. cities as a way to keep traffic flowing.

A Church Road overlay project, which will put a new layer of asphalt on five lanes from Pepperchase west to U.S. 51.

Widening Stateline Road between Tchulahoma and Malone.

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